Quotes of the day

posted at 9:01 pm on March 29, 2014 by Allahpundit

This week marks the end of Piers Morgan’s show on CNN and his run has been full of effusive praise for liberals and damnation of conservatives. Even before Morgan began his show, back in 2010, he tipped his hand in which ideological direction he wanted to take the show when he revealed who he most wanted to interview: “I’d love to do President Obama. I like what he’s done for the reputation of America abroad, which I’m not sure many Americans fully understand.”

In contrast, Morgan viciously attacked gun rights advocates and Tea Party activists, while giving better treatment to Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who he once asked how many times he had “been properly in love?”

Morgan was not only a ratings disaster for CNN, he was a public relations disaster. For years the left-leaning network had tried to fool audiences into believing CNN is unbiased. Morgan’s unrelenting anti-gun hysteria ripped the mask off the entire network.

Morgan’s anti-gun crusade was also seen by many as nothing more than an attack on rural, mostly-Red State Americans — or just another manifestation of CNN’s well-documented cultural bigotry towards Middle America.

***

Georgia illustrates the NRA’s structural advantage on gun control. As if we needed a fresh demonstration of this phenomenon, the gun-rights lobby currently enjoys a fundamental edge in the debate about regulating firearms. In an era of falling crime rates, liberal enthusiasm for gun control simply doesn’t pack much political punch outside certain blue-state environments. Yes, people get riled up, understandably, by mass shootings at schools or movie theaters. Over and over, we’ve seen those emotions fade quickly, giving way to a more sustained counter-reaction from the pro-gun side. The NRA has skillfully responded to calls for stricter gun control by portraying them as evidence that liberals’ real agenda is confiscating firearms—all firearms…

Skeptics of expansive gun rights need to respond intelligently. The smart response is not scorn or exaggeration. For better or worse, gun ownership has come to symbolize a range of deeply felt ideas about culture and government authority. Making fun of people who view their firearms as emblems of liberty and traditional values (however they define those values) will neither change minds nor repeal legislation.

***

In the aftermath of a gun tragedy, there isn’t anything wrong with proponents of gun control trying to persuade Americans to change their position in light of what happened. But after Newtown, many gun-control advocates tried to shame rather than persuade, as if the “correct” position was obvious to everyone save retrograde idiots.

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Now I fully understand why the Founders broke away from England. Imagine a whole country of elite piers Morgans telling how us how to live. One is enough to make me sick. One day he may see the light of the rugged individualism that made America great but I doubt it. By the way, we saved your British ass twice…perhaps a simple thank you might be in order. A lot of dough boys and GIs were marksman just thru daily survival with firearms. Rot in hell if don’t understand American God given freedoms.

amazing isn’t it. I also noticed the huge background board and that floor turning into the Indian Ocean…oivey. At least they seem to be beating the pants of MSNBC lately. That always brings a smile to my face. But I can’t watch either of those stations for more than a minute at a time.

…the Thucydidean discourse on the plague becomes a reminder of how close humans always are to savagery–and how precious is their salvation won through law, religion, science, and custom. This thin veneer of civilization is a universal constant, one immune to the arrogance of modernism that professes that technology has at last nullified the age-old pathologies of human nature.

Cancer, a lot of times, is genetic. People like to equate [especially] lung cancer with smoking. I would sooner equate emphysema and COPD and crap like that to smoking.Cheryl’s mom is 77. She was diagnosed with lymph node cancer. She smokes like a fiend.